Paris Series: Opera and Eiffel Tower

For our third day in Paris, I packed a lot of sightseeing. All of us were eager to get closer to the Eiffel Tower. We’d been able to see it a few times over the first two days, but it was time to finally walk underneath it and climb it! I was unfortunately not able to buy tickets that would take us to the third floor, only the second one. But since our time spot was at 8 PM, we had to keep ourselves busy for the day!

Our day started at the Garnier Opera. I don’t think it’s a popular attraction for tourist, but that’s what made it so awesome for us! I wasn’t sure if Chris or my sister would enjoy it, but as an architecture lover, I knew I had to go. So that’s why I bought three tickets online, not giving anybody a chance to back out. And I’m so glad I did! The style of the Opéra is very close to what you can find in Versailles, but with a tenth of the crowd. We had the chance to admire every detail of this incredible building, as well as feel like we’d been thrown into the past. All we wanted was to dress up and see an opera or a ballet later tonight. But of course, that’s not something the common people can afford!

Chris admitted that this was his favorite attraction! I totally agree. There was so much to see from the marble staircases to the red auditorium. Plus, it’s where Anastasia goes in the movie! My sister and I are big fans of the movie, so we had a lot of fun dancing around and looking for the next location we had to check out.

Our next stop, on the way to the Eiffel Tower, was the Arc-de-Triomphe. It’s a must see in Paris and we did like every other tourist: stand in the middle of the street while the light is red, then get the hell out of there because you get hit by a car! The street the Arc is on is a pretty busy one, so you don’t want to stay there too long…

We could have climbed on top of it (or just go underneath it), but the line was way too long and the price too high. We didn’t see the value in it, so we simply walked around.

We had a lot of fun exploring around the Eiffel Tower and looking at all those people who were in line to buy tickets to go up. We already had ours and would be able to skip a good part of the line later, so we decided to take a well-deserved break on the Champs de Mars. We stayed there for a while, resting our tired legs and realizing how lucky we were to be there. After all, the Eiffel Tower has this kind of people on people: it makes you feel tiny. Or it did for me, anyway.

We ended up having a few hours of free time before having to go up the tower, so we decided to treat ourselves to a cruise on the Seine! I thought it would be interesting to see the city from another angle, but I also ended up learning quite a bit from their audio recordings. Neither of us had a book about Paris, and we didn’t hire a tour guide anywhere, so it was nice to finally learn a bit more about Paris (although I already knew quite a bit).

At last, it was our turn to climb the tower! (Okay, I admit, we did take the elevator!) You can take the stairs to the second level if you want to, but only during the day. They’re closed at night.

We had so much fun walking around, looking at the beautiful City of Lights and just enjoying our time there. I loved watching the educational video on the first floor, which explained quite a bit about the construction of the tower and its maintenance.

I wish we could have gone to the top, but I couldn’t find any tickets online and didn’t want to risk it. I did try to see if we could sneak in the elevator, but I didn’t want to be thrown out. Maybe next time! 😉

STAY TUNED FOR MORE POSTS ABOUT OUR WEEK IN PARIS!

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We're Chris and Virginie, two digital nomads traveling around the world. We ditched our full-time jobs a year ago to gain the freedom we always wanted. Follow us as we wander the globe and learn to work online!

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